Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) have poor 5-year survival rates (55% and 33%, respectively), compared to early-stage breast cancer (80%). [1-3] Prior to surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is used to down-stage patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a subset of LABC. The rationale for downstaging the tumor before surgery is that it will provide the option for a more conservative surgery and can even change an inoperable tumor to an operable one in some cases.[4] However, not all patients respond equally well to the neoadjuvant treatment and effective biomarkers that can predict treatment response are lacking. Patients who achieve a pathologic clinical response (pCR) have a better prognosis, but there is a need for effective biomarkers to predict which patients will achieve pCR.
It has been previously reported that DCE-MRI parameters are linked to treatment outcome in canine and human cancers.[5,16] This was the first study to report a linkage between DCE-MRI parameters in sarcomas and long-term outcome.[16] In humans, it has been previously reported that DCE-MRI perfusion patterns, obtained from LABC patients prior to neoadjuvant therapy, were predictive of pathologic clinical response.[5] Genomic analyses were also independently conducted on the same patient LABC population.[6]
Thus, there is an umet need for biomarkers for breast cancer, and the present disclosure provides such biomarkers.